On Another Night
by Starrify
Summary: Korra meets Tahno first. / Alternate history, oneshot. Tahorra.


Notes: Okay, I caved in and decided to post it here. This is an alternate history fic where Korra meets the Wolfbats instead of the Fire Ferrets. And yes, I'm pretty sure I ship Tahorra so much right now. Also, check out this gif for reference: kaathiiee(.)tumblr(.)com(/)post(/)23402229203 ! Okay? Okay.

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_Pathetic._

Tahno walked down the long corridors of the arena, his gait as cocky as ever. One of his hands was kept still in the pockets of his pro-bending uniform, while the other was uninterestedly playing around with a small token he had just received from another one of his fangirls.

_Really, really pathetic._

When he opened his locker earlier, he found a letter telling him to meet him outside—and Tahno, not one to miss the opportunity of getting some before a battle, told his teammates that he'd be back in a few with a low snicker. However, when he exited the backdoor, he saw a little girl who couldn't possibly be older than fourteen—and while Tahno thought that she had a pretty face and that she could pass off three years older than she really was, he wasn't interested into children. Especially when he could get arrested for getting caught with them.

"Oh my gosh, are you really Tahno?" The girl froze, her amber eyes widened with surprise—she obviously hadn't expected that the famous pro-bender would actually respond to her letter. "I, I can't believe it! My friends didn't believe I could actually get to see you, but…oh my gosh, I really can't believe it. I'm such a huge fan of the White Falls Wolfbats, and I have all your posters on the walls of my room, and I have all your merchandise and—"

"Is there a point to your rambling, little girl?" he cut in with a sharp glare, though when she backed up a step due, he softened his expression. "I mean, you should know that I have a game in a few minutes."

"Oh, oh; of course, Mister Tahno, sir!" The girl shuffled in her steps and quickly bent over to rummage through the knapsack she had with her. After a few seconds, she finally found what she was looking for, and took out a single rose with a deep shade of maroon. She bravely stepped forward, her head down while she offered the flower to him. "It's not much, but I hope you still accept it!"

He frowned, momentarily thinking that he should just leave her—but despite what the media sometimes portrayed him as, he wasn't that bad a person. And he _did_ appreciate his fans. It was just that sometimes he appreciated the others in another way, which wasn't really a hushed fact, but _still_. At least he could give the little girl some credit for being brave enough to try. So he raised his arm and took the rose from her, letting his thumb linger on her fingers for more than a second before she stepped back, blushing.

"Thank you," Tahno told her with one of his ever charming smiles. He turned around and went back inside the arena, locking the backdoor behind him. While he trudged up the staircase, he started chastising himself for being desperate enough to answer the little girl's call. He scrunched his nose up, disgusted with himself.

_Pathetic._

He stopped in his tracks, suddenly feeling uneasy. There was no one following him, and there definitely weren't any ghosts inside the arena, so why did he feel another person's presence? He looked out one of the windows and unconsciously his arm went up, and his eyes widened as he felt it: something travelling at a fast speed from Yue Bay—a rather wild fish, perhaps? Curiously, he walked up to one of the golden arches, and looked down to the dark waters, but after a few seconds, nothing surfaced. Shrugging, he dismissed it as another one of his bouts of paranoia.

But when he swiveled his heels, he was pushed to the ground by a rather heavy object—or rather, a heavy _wet_ person.

"Spirits," the person—a girl—cried, jumping off of his back. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I didn't expect anyone to be here, really. Here, let me help you up!"

Tahno rolled over to see the culprit of his falling down, and was shocked to see a tall girl smiling at him awkwardly while she offered her hand to help him up. She was dark-skinned and her brown locks were plastered onto her cheeks and forehead—she had this aura of exoticism around her, especially with her odd water tribe get up, but quite frankly, Tahno wanted her anyway.

"Or not, I guess." She slowly put her hand back to her side when he didn't make an effort to move from the floor. Tahno continued to observe her with one eye, as the view of his right eye was blocked by his wet bangs. Slowly, he started to get up and whipped his hair to the right. The girl seemed to recognize him after that. "Wait, I know you! I saw you on the newspaper earlier today! Um, Tono, right? And you play for the…Eel Hounds?"

"The name's Tahno, and I'm from the Wolfbats. Nice try, though, sweetheart." At this point, Tahno was intrigued by the lady in front of her. She looked like she was just a few years younger than him, and while he towered around half a foot taller than her, she was still quite tall for her age. And strong, definitely—he didn't miss the toned muscles in her arms. "And you are?"

"Korra," she chirped, her blue eyes alight with this innocence he couldn't place. It was something rare to come by in the city, and Tahno felt a need to protect it, to protect her, knowing fully well how terrible the city really was. "So, um, _Tah-no_. Could you help me find my way to the stands? I was hoping to catch a match tonight, and…"

"You snuck into the arena through the windows to try to get a seat," Tahno supplied for her, grinning cheekily. She blushed and squeezed some water out of her ponytails. "I could call security on you, you know."

The girl jumped and bared her teeth again in something akin to a lopsided grin. "But you won't, will you?"

He shrugged and started to walk ahead. He didn't want to risk getting disqualified because of some girl—no matter how interesting she seemed to be, but when he was a meter ahead, he stopped to bend the water out of his uniform. Then, he looked back at Korra who was stuck in her place. "If you'd like to learn how a real pro bends, I'd suggest you follow me, _Kor-ra_."

Korra nodded and ran to catch up to him. Tahno couldn't help but to roll his eyes at how naïve she was—he used that line on a hundred other girls, but she…

She was definitely something.

Later on, when they arrived in the preparation room, Korra quickly ran to the edge of the rails, her jaw slacking and her eyes wide open, beholding at the whole of the coliseum with a keenness only a child should have. Tahno chuckled and went to his locker to retrieve his helmet. Shaozu, the firebender of his team, let out a low whistle and slapped him on his shoulder.

"That's her, huh? I wasn't expecting someone so…_different_."

"Nah," Tahno said, leering. "Picked her up on my way here."

"Nice," Ming, their earthbender, added with a chortle. He stood up from the bench and also patted his captain's arm. "Let's go; we're on."

The two other members of the White Falls Wolfbats stepped onto the platform, already waving at all the fans cheering their team's name. Tahno stayed behind for a minute to talk to Korra.

"No good luck kiss, Korra?" he joked, securing the strap of his helmet. "I could still take this off if you'd give me one."

Korra actually answered to his flirting with a confident smirk of her own. "If I read the papers right, _pretty boy_, your team's been champion for three years. I don't think anything I do will make a difference, but good luck anyway."

"Thanks," he said, tipping her chin up and enjoying the flustered look she had on her face. Before he stepped onto the platform to follow his teammates, he chucked the rose at her and winked. Korra looked at the flower in her hands, never having seen it before in her life—obviously, since they didn't grow in the tundra.

She couldn't stop the smile growing on her lips, so she leaned on the railings and pumped her fist up into the air, screaming, "Go Wolfbats!"

Tahno leaned back to see Korra beaming at him. He was…interested. _Very_ interested. And he liked her, he really did—and as much as he also liked the warm feeling she gave him, he also felt pathetic at how soft he's gotten after just meeting her.

_Really, really pathetic._


End file.
